Go back to the time of Victorian England. There were no controls on guns at all except for proofing them. and handguns required you to buy a stamp at the post office. These stamps were sold as routine. You just walk up to the clerk and say you want a X or Y stamp and he sells you one.
Other guns such as rifles, pistols, revolvers, machine guns and so on required nothing.
There crime rates were so low that one could usually count the total number of armed robberies in the entire nation on the fingers of one hand.
You sir, have read Joyce Lee Malcolm!
Thank you for adding erudition to the discussion!
Leftists destroy, they do not build1
Reading the local news website for that area was like peering back through the mists of time. Clicking on "police and crime" in the sidebar brought up mostly a collection of stories about traffic accidents. No murders, no rapes, no muggings. Oh, and the cantonal Schützenfest is sponsored by a *brewery*.
More than that, one thing I’ve noticed is that Letters of Marque issued by the United States may reference a private ship that is already armed with cannon, but doesn’t authorize it.
In other words, private American citizens used to be able to buy cannon without a background check.
The Brits were undoubtedly bored to tears and decided to bring some excitement and beat-downs into their lives ~ so they restricted guns.